Delegation: from left to right: Gaby Jaenen (CG Secretary Limburg), Fabrice Lamarque (CG Secretary Tournai) Geoffrey Goble (CG Secretary Liege), our guide to the Union School, Carlos Sonora (NMP National Secretary), Raul (our driver throughout the week), Robert Verteneuil (Federal Secretary SO), Rik Desmet (Federal Secretary SO ) and Lieven Vanhoutte (head of international relations Federal CG). (I take the picture ;-)
Sunday. Rest after 24 hours of travel and testing of the 6 hour time difference in Havana by night (it was Saturday night, impossible not to go soak a minute rhythms salsa and reggeaton who beat the city to all its brands). Greeted at the airport by three representatives of the CLC who will accompany us during visits and meetings this week, we took the opportunity to discuss the conditions under which lies the island and the economic problems everywhere. Argelio, President sector Construcción, gives us a concrete example of the consequences of the embargo: the state has purchased several years ago of machines and instruments for medicine (radiology, scanner, processing of samples, etc..) A Americans firm specializing in the manufacture and repair of these devices. The U.S. State learned that the firm had dealt with Cuba, he was fined 150,000 dollars and prohibited, under penalty of larger future market with all the island. Result: it is impossible to replace or repair parts worn or damaged instruments, and that's an area that is greatly handicapped. Another difficulty faced by medicine is the lack of manpower, a lot of health professionals (about 35,000) currently practicing in other countries - or through cooperative agreements (the majority) either on their own initiative.
After an hour and a half wait (for it is unclear what) to use, we finally arrived at the hotel. It is midnight in Cuba, 6 hours in Belgium.
Our hotel is located on La Rampa, wide avenue that links the Malecon in Vedado neighborhood, convenient location to start our Sunday walk in the streets of Havana. However, we do not recommend this hotel to our friends in case of urgent repair if there is really nothing else ..
The delegation from visiting a botanical garden in the countryside, Geoffrey and I decided to stay in town and take the opportunity to "matar as saudades "(literally" kill nostalgia "), see friends, places, find the smells, sounds, heat lightened by the moist sea breeze along the Malecon. 9 years have passed since my first arrival in this city, they seem sometimes 9 centuries, now 9 days ...
neighborhoods come together and do not look alike, the Old Havana now airs Tuscan village well maintained, kept too , rebuilt only for tourists, it became stuck in a blatant artificiality too often, and is no longer inhabited the proper motion in a neighborhood that lives.
Beside her, in its extension, the neighborhood of Centro Habana, not rebuilt or for tourists or for people falling apart. The streets in pools of moldy sewer unabsorbed, the walls break down, the apartments are often home to several families in unacceptable conditions. Old and dilapidated, Centro Habana living rough and she lives strong, she saw laughter and cries of children, aunts and neighbors, she lives and rumba music, she lives sad, too, sometimes, I guess ...
The Vedado where we are is still a completely different style: old colonial houses are also often in poor condition, wide tree-lined streets, the air circulates, nightclubs and cultural centers abound, there is also housed at the University of Havana, the quality of education is undeniable. Bordering the Bay of neighborhoods along this chain of 5 kilometers, passenger shelter flirtations, musicians and poets and bulwark against the sea, lies the Malecón, the broad wall which repeatedly sat down to another place of dreams too often out of reach.
After an hour and a half wait (for it is unclear what) to use, we finally arrived at the hotel. It is midnight in Cuba, 6 hours in Belgium.
Our hotel is located on La Rampa, wide avenue that links the Malecon in Vedado neighborhood, convenient location to start our Sunday walk in the streets of Havana. However, we do not recommend this hotel to our friends in case of urgent repair if there is really nothing else ..
The delegation from visiting a botanical garden in the countryside, Geoffrey and I decided to stay in town and take the opportunity to "matar as saudades "(literally" kill nostalgia "), see friends, places, find the smells, sounds, heat lightened by the moist sea breeze along the Malecon. 9 years have passed since my first arrival in this city, they seem sometimes 9 centuries, now 9 days ...
neighborhoods come together and do not look alike, the Old Havana now airs Tuscan village well maintained, kept too , rebuilt only for tourists, it became stuck in a blatant artificiality too often, and is no longer inhabited the proper motion in a neighborhood that lives.
Beside her, in its extension, the neighborhood of Centro Habana, not rebuilt or for tourists or for people falling apart. The streets in pools of moldy sewer unabsorbed, the walls break down, the apartments are often home to several families in unacceptable conditions. Old and dilapidated, Centro Habana living rough and she lives strong, she saw laughter and cries of children, aunts and neighbors, she lives and rumba music, she lives sad, too, sometimes, I guess ...
The Vedado where we are is still a completely different style: old colonial houses are also often in poor condition, wide tree-lined streets, the air circulates, nightclubs and cultural centers abound, there is also housed at the University of Havana, the quality of education is undeniable. Bordering the Bay of neighborhoods along this chain of 5 kilometers, passenger shelter flirtations, musicians and poets and bulwark against the sea, lies the Malecón, the broad wall which repeatedly sat down to another place of dreams too often out of reach.
The United States has no embassy in Cuba, but an "office of U.S. interests", located on the Malecón. To defy the so-called-interest, the government has erected against this office plaza dedicated to the big rallies, speeches and events celebrating the Revolution. Facing the building, a stage and in capital letters "Patria o muerte Venceremos" and, also arranged in the face, 48 small black flags, corresponding to the 48 countries that were invaded by the United States. They were much greater at the time of Bush, since Obama has shrunk in size as a sign of relative confidence given to new U.S. government ...
the afternoon took place the great concert for peace on Revolution Square. Many artists (between others, Silvio Rodriguez, Orishas, Pedro Guerra, and of course, Juanes) occurred there throughout the afternoon, it was undoubtedly a major event of the year. We attended the parade to the site of dozens of buses of Socialist Youth throughout the country, "work centers" (SOEs), delegations of foreign students, mainly Latin America. According to TV presenters, 700 000 people were gathered. We enjoyed the atmosphere there (see photo), but we're not because being retarded among 700 000 persons is not specifically the experience less oppressive than imaginable. Tomorrow morning, the real fun begins.
the afternoon took place the great concert for peace on Revolution Square. Many artists (between others, Silvio Rodriguez, Orishas, Pedro Guerra, and of course, Juanes) occurred there throughout the afternoon, it was undoubtedly a major event of the year. We attended the parade to the site of dozens of buses of Socialist Youth throughout the country, "work centers" (SOEs), delegations of foreign students, mainly Latin America. According to TV presenters, 700 000 people were gathered. We enjoyed the atmosphere there (see photo), but we're not because being retarded among 700 000 persons is not specifically the experience less oppressive than imaginable. Tomorrow morning, the real fun begins.
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